Poor Posture and Breathing

From the first second a patient walks into my office, I am doing an assessment on their posture, movement patterns, and breathing patterns. If I stop to say "...and now I will do a posture assessment", it is guaranteed that the patient's posture changes. I will often do this anyway. This is because most people don't really know what good posture is. They couldn't show me good posture even if I offered them a million dollars.
Try this experiment. Slouch as much as possible in the seated position. Now try to take a full breath. It just doesn't happen. Now sit up straight and try again. Better, right?
Now try to find the best posture for your breathing. Experiment by tilting your pelvis forward and backward and deep breathe in any variation of upright posture that you can find. When assessing your full breath, judge by how much each position allows you to breathe sideways (think of breathing into your armpits). Avoid lifting the sternum or shoulders. Now try tilting your ribcage forward and backward. Lastly vary the position of the head. The best position is often the one where it feels like the base of the skull moves backwards, giving you a slight chin tuck. This is ironic because many people will reflexively poke their chins forward when their breathing increases. This has the opposite end result.

You will find the best posture is neutral where the ribcage is over the pelvis and the head is over the shoulders. The shoulders must be relaxed and not forced backwards, nor jutting forwards. Most of us will either slouch or be excessively upright. The forced upright position shown above will often be combined with a slight forward lean. This posture feels like "good posture" yet causes many painful syndromes. This is why we include posture coaching as part of the treatment plan at Schafer Chiropractic. A little knowledge can go a long way.